There is little dispute that a player’s sexual orientation has no bearing on his ability to throw or catch a football, tackle a ball carrier or kick a field goal.

The purpose of the NFL Combine is to help teams ascertain who among the hundreds of college candidates can best do the above.

So asking a player whether he likes girls, which Colorado tight end Nick Kasa said he was asked at the combine, even if it is done in a half-kidding way, is in no way appropriate, and in most cases is illegal.

If you don’t think discrimination is at the heart of such questioning, look at the evidence. This stems from the Manti Te’o dead girlfriend hoax. Yeah, a guy gets a trick played on him by another guy, he must be gay.

Of course the NFL looks at it as a legal issue, thus its statement that “It is league policy to neither consider nor inquire about sexual orientation in the hiring process,” and “We will look into the report on the questioning of Nick Kasa at the Scouting Combine. Any team or employee that inquires about impermissible subjects or makes an employment decision based on such factors is subject to league discipline.”

The NFL should be more proactive on this issue. Obviously there are gay players in the NFL.

Of course there is homophobia in NFL locker rooms too. I’ve heard and overheard enough from players – jokes, off-the-cuff comments, etc. – to know that generally it is OK to be ignorant and homophobic in an NFL locker room.

But I have talked to enough players – guys with brothers, friends and other family members who are gay – to know that in certain corners of the locker room, most of the locker room in fact, there is tolerance.

I can tell you the tone in NFL locker rooms today is far more progressive than 20, 15, even 10 years ago.

In the Texans’ locker room this season, I heard a player make a gay joke using a gay slur to boot, and a teammate, whose locker was near his, quietly put him in check. There was no confrontation. No argument.

It was a simple pull-of-the-coat “You crossed the line and should be careful with what you say,” type admonishment, which drew a response of “I didn’t mean anything by it, but now that I think about it you’re right.”

I didn’t plan to write anything about it because it wasn’t a story. A few weeks later I got a chance to talk to the player who made the joke and I asked him whether a gay player would be accepted in the locker room and, somewhat surprisingly, he said a homosexual player would have far more supporters than detractors.

And he said he would be a supporter. Yeah, the person who made the off-the-cuff gay joke wouldn’t have a problem having a gay teammate.

“I wouldn’t say those type things if there was a gay guy on the team,” he said. “First and foremost, he’d be my teammate.”

When I pointed out that there might already be a gay player on the team, and almost certainly he played with gay players in college, where there are nearly twice as many players on the roster as in the NFL he paused for a moment.

“Probably,” he said.

He believes an openly gay college player would have a more difficult time than an openly gay player in the NFL.

He is almost certainly right about that, considering the age and maturity level of college athletes and fans, and the intensity of the rivalries.

The business of the NFL should make the first openly gay professional player’s life less stressful. Connor Barwin, whose brother is gay, thinks that player will be considered a hero to most.

The locker room will be less of a problem than many think. In 2013 they might be close to being self-policing.

No doubt scouts, coaches and NFL personnel men are more out of touch than players. The Neanderthal world starts there, not in the locker room.

It won’t be easy to be the first gay player in the NFL, mind you, but unlike it was when Jackie Robinson integrated baseball, this player won’t have to deal with sanctioned taunts from teammates.

Branch Rickey told Robinson he had to take it.

Roger Goodell needs to send the opposite message.

He can start by finding out which teams crossed the line at the combine with invasive and inappropriate questions – a line query that has nothing to do with one’s ability to play football – and handing them the most severe punishment.